Chapter 18: System Upgrade

Chapter 18 System Upgrade

In the dark forest, a man wearing infrared night-vision goggles sprinted swiftly, moving as if on solid ground. He pressed the button on the earpiece in his left ear and spoke clearly and precisely, “Level One Enforcer, code t01023, mission clhyd1 completed. I will arrive at the extraction point in fifteen minutes. Please arrange extraction vehicles. Thank you.”

The cold, mechanical voice in the earpiece responded like an electronic calculator’s tone, “t01023, mission failed. Confidential self-destruct system activated. Countdown: five minutes.”

The man slowly stopped. He stood frozen for a moment and then repeated his previous message. To ensure the receiver heard clearly, he spoke more succinctly this time, emphasizing the letters and numbers, “Mission clhyd1 completed. Please arrange extraction vehicles.”

There was a brief silence before the earpiece responded again, still cold and mechanical but more concise, “Mission failed. Countdown: four minutes.”

The man slapped his left ear hard and shouted, “I haven’t failed! It must be a system error from higher-ups! Confirm, mission code c-l-h-y-d-1, that’s the number one, not the letter e!”

There was no reply. Just as he was about to send another confirmation request, a powerful blow struck the small of his back. Taken completely off guard, his body pitched forward, crashing to the ground. Before he could react, Roland had already trapped his neck with one arm and pressed her other hand forcefully against his head.

He was a battle-hardened veteran and knew exactly what this meant. At this moment, she could easily snap his neck.

“Speak! Who sent you?”

When the man heard the voice was female, he laughed bitterly, “I actually doubted the higher-ups. How could they possibly be wrong?”

“Who sent you?” Roland’s tone hardened, and she tightened the grip of her arm.

“Impressive... surviving that explosion and trailing me silently all this way.” The man clearly showed no intention to answer because he knew remaining silent might spare him a more painless death.

“I won’t break your neck; I’ll torture you slowly until you talk.” In the darkness, Roland’s eyes were red-rimmed as she spoke. She knew the reason for her sorrow was because somewhere, Li Mengli’s soul was howling in anguish.

But what she did not realize was that this grief was not hers alone—it was shared with Li Mengli.

***

“You’re useless, girl. In a few minutes, I’ll be dead.” Knowing there was no hope, the man became even more fearless. “If you want to torture me, hurry up. Your time’s almost up.”

“Alright, alright... don’t be like this. Every debt has its debtor. Tell me who ordered you, and I promise I won’t kill you!” Roland suddenly felt an unprecedented fear, terrified he might bite his tongue to commit suicide the next second. “You framed me for what happened to my parents, didn’t you?”

“Your father did die because of you—you placed him in that taxi.” The man sweat profusely, his tense muscles gradually relaxing. “As for your mother, she wasn’t the target. You should consider yourself lucky not to have been home tonight, or both your mother and your younger sister in high school would have died.”

It seemed the man still believed she was Li Mengli. Roland could clearly feel his life signs weakening; the masterminds must have prepared something in advance to remotely control his life.

“Why do you want to kill me?”

“I don’t know why the higher-ups want you dead. I’m just the executor of orders.” The man was barely breathing now. Weakly, he asked, “How did you survive...?”

Roland slowly loosened her grip on his neck; continuing to restrain him no longer served any purpose. She replied calmly, “By running.”

“Running?” The man’s voice grew fainter in disbelief. “What nonsense...”

Before he could finish, he fell completely silent. Roland stood and began to leave. After a few steps, she suddenly remembered something, dashed back, crouched down, and pulled the earpiece from his left ear, pressing it against her own.

“Who are you?” Roland cautiously asked.

Unexpectedly, the earpiece emitted an intelligent mechanical voice, “I’m sorry, Ms. Roland, I do not have permission to answer that question.”

The way it addressed her was like a faint glimmer of light in endless darkness.

In this world, besides Fang Xiaoling, no one should know Roland’s name. This meant the other party might know everything—her every crossing, the deaths of her parents, even all the truths.

“Did you kill my parents?”

Every second of waiting was agony for Roland.

After a long silence, the voice finally responded, “Sorry, I do not have permission to answer that. But I would like to chat with you. You are quite famous here.”

“What questions can you answer?” Roland clung to this lifeline. “Can you tell me about the curse?”

There seemed to be a long delay before the earpiece replied, “What would you like to ask?”

“Everything you know. Why do I cross over? How many times more? When will it end?”

This time, the wait was even longer.

“Ms. Roland, after approval from higher authorities, I can only inform you that the system has been upgraded. If you die in any world after crossing over, you will truly die.”

“What a joke...” Roland had hoped for useful information, but the answer only made things worse. Furious, she said, “I will find all of you! Since your system is behind the crossings, then you’re also responsible for my parents’ deaths! I won’t be your pawn anymore. I refuse to complete those crossing missions. I’ll live my life in this world, enjoy it—after all, I have plenty of money!”

The reply came swiftly this time: “1. You won’t find us. 2. Natural death in any world other than your true body will cause the death of your true body. 3. The number of crossings was originally fixed but will multiply with each failure. 4...”

The voice paused, then continued, “My personal friendly advice: complete your missions quickly and efficiently. It’s your only chance to meet us.”

Roland felt dizzy as she processed this information. The world spun; darkness engulfed her again, as if wrapped in an even deeper blackness.

“What’s wrong with you? You’re my enemies yet say you want to chat. You set rules but won’t explain them. You don’t want me dead, yet you send people to kill me...” She almost broke down, sinking to the ground, murmuring, “What do you want? Forcing me to jump between worlds to seduce men—is that fun? Is it meaningful?”

“Ms. Roland, things are more complicated than you think. Also, we never intended to kill you. As for today’s events, please don’t misunderstand; the person we wanted to kill was Li Mengli.”

(End of chapter)